A Report On E-C Translation Of The Rainbow Cat From The Perspective Of Reception Theory

This report is based on the E-C translation of The Rainbow Cat,a collection of fairy tales written by the British writer Rose Amy Fyleman.The translation practice is under the guidance of Reception Theory that put forward by Hans Robert Jauss.He supposes that the translation should meet the expectations of target readers and realize the different literary values of children’s literature.Reception Theory advocates the role of readers,so the translation should satisfy child readers’horizon of expectation.In the pre-translation preparation,the translator collected parallel texts,summarized the stylistic features and compared them with the features of the source text.Considering target readers are children,the translator referred to Chinese Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education(《语文课程标准》)to define the age group of target readers.Horizon of expectation is the methodology of Reception Theory.On the one hand,target readers seek resonance in the text,on the other hand,they also seek innovation in the text,so horizon of expectation is divided into directed expectation and creative expectation.It is not enough to evoke readers’ past reading experience and meet their directed expectation;it is also necessary to meet their creative expectation which is beyond their appreciation habits.Therefore,it requires the translation to not only meet the reading habits of target readers,but also bring new experiences to them.According to target audience’s expectations of different literary values,the literary values of the source text can be classified into aesthetic value,entertaining value and informative value.Aesthetic value is the core value of literature.To realize the aesthetic value of the text and let children enjoy the beauty of the text in reading,the translator adopted onomatopoeia,and focused on the rhymes and rhythms of the target text.Children often have directed expectation for the entertaining value of the text,and they want to find joy and fun in reading.For entertaining value,the translator reproduced the wordplays,utilized buzzwords and applied different rhetorical devices.Moreover,children also have creative expectation.They have a strong curiosity for unknown things,which stimulates them to learn something new.Therefore,the translator footnoted the terms and added background information to the unfamiliar characters.For the sake of developing children’s language ability,the translator also used different idioms in Chinese.Finally,the translator summarizes the findings and limitations of the report,and gives some suggestions on the translation of wordplay and nursery rhymes.